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The Twelfth Doctor
The Twelfth Doctor made a first, uncredited appearance in the programme's fiftieth anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor" (2013), when thirteen incarnations of the Doctor united to save his home planet of Gallifrey from destruction during the Time War. At first, the Time Lords in Gallifrey's war room spotted twelve blue TARDISes approaching and encircling the planet. This count was then corrected to thirteen, and Capaldi's hands, eyes, and forehead were fleetingly shown. He then made his full debut at the end of the next episode, "The Time of the Doctor", after the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), about to die from old age, was given a new regeneration cycle from the Time Lords, who remained hidden in a pocket universe. In the series 8 premiere "Deep Breath" (2014), the Doctor arrived in Victorian London, where he recovered from the stress of his regeneration, initially under the care of the Paternoster Gang. After uncovering potential alien presence in London, the Doctor went on the run as a homeless person for some time. While on the run, he believed he had seen his new face before, though he does not recall from where. He and Clara (Jenna Coleman) were reunited by a third party, and realised that this third party has been conspiring to bring the two of them together for some time. The Doctor helped Clara overcome her reservations about his new personality and older physical appearance, and they began travelling together once more. Over the course of the series, he and Clara had some ups and downs in their friendship caused both by the Doctor's callousness and because Clara wished to keep her continued travelling a secret from her boyfriend, Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson); she was not able to resolve the situation before Danny dies in a road accident in the first part of the series finale, "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven". In the finale, he met Missy (Michelle Gomez), the latest incarnation of his nemesis, the Master, who revealed that she conspired to bring him and Clara together and had begun converting the Earth's dead into Cybermen; her plan was to compromise the Doctor's morality with the offer of an army with which to rule the universe. Missy's scheme was foiled, but not before many had died and Earth was in chaos. The Doctor took a weapon from Clara, to spare his companion the burden of killing Missy herself. As the Doctor hesitated, a cyberconverted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, retaining his humanity, appeared to disintegrate Missy with a laser blast. After a traumatic ordeal, the Doctor and Clara parted ways, seemingly for good, before they were reunited by a shared dream in "Last Christmas" and agree to continue adventuring. In the series 9 premiere "The Magician's Apprentice"/"The Witch's Familiar" (2015), the Doctor, along with Clara and Missy, who survived her apparent disintegration, are summoned to the planet Skaro by The Doctor's nemesis Davros (Julian Bleach), the creator of the evil Dalek race, who is dying. Davros plays on the Doctor's sympathies to trick him into revitalising a dying Dalek empire, siphoning some of the Doctor's regeneration energy to do so. The Doctor also enlivens a mass of dying Daleks consigned to the sewers of Skaro, who begin to tear the city apart, and he makes his escape with Clara, but not before visiting Davros as a young boy on the battlefields of Skaro, and instilling in him a lesson about the virtues of mercy. In "The Girl Who Died," the Doctor finally remembers that he shares a face with a man he was persuaded to save in Pompeii, despite his initial reluctance to alter the timeline. He surmises that he subconsciously chose this face as a reminder that his job is to save lives. He is inspired to resurrect Viking girl Ashildr (Maisie Williams) with alien technology; he learns in "The Woman Who Lived" that she has become immortal and watches over his past companions. In "Face the Raven", Clara dies while trying to outsmart Ashildr, who stages an elaborate ploy to trap the Doctor, which he learns in "Heaven Sent" was on behalf of the Time Lords. Emerging from the trap on his home planet of Gallifrey, he sends a warning to his people of his return. In "Hell Bent", the Doctor deposes Time Lord President Rassilon (Donald Sumpter) and uses Time Lord technology to save Clara from the moments before her death, and then proceeds to run away with her to the end of time in the hopes of cheating death permanently. He is then persuaded by Ashildr that he and Clara are a dangerous influence on each other, and perhaps together constitute the "Hybrid of two great warrior races" which is prophesied to destroy Gallifrey. The Doctor attempts to wipe Clara's memories of him using a device, but she alters it so that it affects his memories of her instead; she leaves him behind on Earth with his TARDIS to start adventuring again. She departs in her own stolen TARDIS, alongside Ashildr, promising to one day return to Gallifrey and accept her death. The Christmas special "The Husbands of River Song" (2015) is the Twelfth Doctor's first appearance alongside his roguish time-traveling wife River Song (Alex Kingston). After an emotionally wrought adventure, the Doctor and River finally confess the full extent of their feelings for each another, and he ends up fulfilling the history River told his earlier incarnation in "Silence in the Library" (2008): giving her his sonic screwdriver and spending a 24-year long date together as their final encounter. The Doctor next appears in the first episode of Doctor Who spin-off Class, appointing two alien refugees and a group of teenagers with protecting the pupils and faculty of Coal Hill Academy from alien threats. He returns in 2016 Christmas special "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", alongside new companion Nardole (Matt Lucas), an employee of River Song's introduced in the previous episode. Together, they save New York from being destroyed by aliens with ambitions of world domination. In the series 10 premiere "The Pilot" (2017), it was revealed that the Doctor has spent decades working as a professor in St Luke's University in Bristol, giving lectures on time and life, assisted by Nardole. The Doctor has taken an oath to stay on Earth and guard a mysterious vault beneath the university. Bored after decades of confinement on Earth, he takes on Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) as his new companion, despite Nardole's reminders about his oath. In "Extremis", the show reveals that Nardole came to assist the Doctor on orders given by River before she died, and that the mysterious vault contains Missy, whom the Doctor swore to watch over for a thousand years. Over "The Lie of the Land", "Empress of Mars" and "The Eaters of Light", the Doctor becomes more convinced that Missy has reformed her ways, and so in "World Enough and Time", he sends her to react to a distress call on a colony ship trapped in the gravity of a black hole. His plan goes horribly wrong when Bill is shot and converted into a Cyberman by medics in the lower floors of the ship, where due to time dilation many years go by. In the series finale, "The Doctor Falls", the Doctor faces an army of Cybermen and struggles to convince Missy to side with him; she is influenced by her past incarnation (John Simm), also on board the ship. Badly injured by the Cybermen's attacks, the Doctor sends Nardole away to evacuate humans from the ship before destroying an entire level of it. Appearing to have died, he is taken to the TARDIS by Bill, who has been restored to life by the timely intervention of her love interest, Heather (Stephanie Hyam). The Doctor wakes up alone, and vows not to regenerate. Clinging onto his life, he wanders out of his TARDIS and encounters his first incarnation (David Bradley) who is facing similar reservations about his pending regeneration. In the Christmas special "Twice Upon A Time", the two Doctors reflect on their lives and, after witnessing the Christmas armistice of 1914, both decide to move on to their next forms. Alone in his TARDIS, the Twelfth Doctor speaks words of advice directed to his successor before regenerating into the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).